Boing Boing

Donald Trump, meet the U.S. Constitution's 'emoluments clause.' A federal judge ruled today that 200 congressional Democrats do have standing to sue Donald Trump for violating the Constitution by doing business with foreign governments while he holds the office of President, according to the Washington Post.Here’s a key passage in the ruling: Judge says @realDonaldTrump has a duty to ask Congress’s permission, and he didn’t. So Dems can sue. pic.twitter.com/jdDiDdGjc1— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 28, 2018From the Washington Post:The lawsuit is based on the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which bars presidents from taking payments from foreign states. Trump’s business, which he still owns, has hosted foreign embassy events and visiting foreign officials at its downtown D.C. hotel.The decision opens up yet another legal front for the president, who is now facing an array of inquiries into his business, his campaign and his charity.Trump is already facing a separate emoluments suit filed by the attorneys general of Washington, D.C. and Maryland that is moving forward. In addition, he is contending with the ongoing special counsel investigation into Russian interference, a lawsuit from the New York Attorney General that alleged “persistently illegal conduct” at his charitable foundation and a defamation lawsuit brought by former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos.In his ruling, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan wrote that the members of Congress “appropriate seek relief in federal court” because they have no way to address their concern about Trump’s alleged violation of the emoluments clause with legislation. Read the rest

Nothing like a relaxing bike ride where the slightest mistake will send you careening down jagged rocks and into a lake far below. The only thing less relaxing would be focusing on filming the whole thing while riding.Fun fact: the reason Phoksundo Lake in Nepal is such a vibrant color is because of the low levels of nutrients and organic matter in the water. The same biker has summited some spectacular mountains, too:• Phoksundo Lake (YouTube / Michele Ferro) Read the rest

We don't have a good place to hang dishtowels in our kitchen. This cupboard door hanger was just what we needed and the price is right at just $3.69. Read the rest

The Pixel Room Generator lets you create charming little pixel-art rooms with all sorts of furniture, such as the one above designed by Itch.io user mogibear.Here's mine: Read the rest

This cow bellows with pleasure while playing fetch with a human. Read the rest

Platforms like Instagram reward users who post specific kinds of content, in some cases leading to travel largely for the photo op. Insta Repeat examines how stylistic themes have emerged in the genre of of Instagram travel photos by aggregating shots that are similar in theme, location, and type of person.What's always interesting to me is that behind many of these photos is an "Instagram boyfriend," the generic term for any spouse, friend, or intimate companion who documents the life of an Instagram influencer.• Insta Repeat (Instagram) Read the rest

This is very satisfying.pic.twitter.com/lZDRtMTD2Z— C H I L I (@heyitschili) September 28, 2018 Read the rest

Our guest on the Cool Tools podcast this week is Anita Sarkeesian. Anita is a media critic and the host of Feminist Frequency Radio. She has a new book called History vs Women, which she wrote with Ebony Adams.Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | Read the rest

You know the drill: someone proposes something utterly commonsense, that has been done all over the world (say, universal healthcare) and the next thing you know, someone's shown up to shout "Who will pay for it?!" Or, more toxically, a discussion of immigration or refugees or asylum seekers ends up being derailed by the state's inability to pay for basic services for the people in the country today -- how can we afford immigrants? Or, worst of all, someone tells you that they voted for a shambling pile of human garbage because he's promised to "fix the debt" and to do less would be immoral, burdening the generations to come (see also: the fucking Democrats buying into this). Governments aren't households, and governments borrowing money in a currency that they themselves issue isn't the same thing as you getting a bank loan. For more than a century, there has been a group of economists who've pointed this out: called "chartalists," then "neo-chartalists" and now, "modern monetary theorists" and they know exactly how to fund universal healthcare.Modern Monetary Theory is the key to the economic prescriptions of Bernie Sanders and it underpins the platform of the Democratic Socialists of America. It's an idea that is having something of a moment!This week's Planet Money podcast does an excellent job of describing MMT in terms that are literally designed to be understood by an eight-year-old (so I was able to follow along, too!).Once you've given that a listen, try The Nation's potted history of MMT and the groundswell of support for it. Read the rest

Kavanaugh got you pissed off about the future of Roe v. Wade? Support this awesome event, and this awesome nonprofit.—The Editors. In 2012, A is For was launched as a response to the ever-escalating legislative attacks on access to safe reproductive healthcare. I'm proud to be one of the co-founders and its vice president.One of our most successful events is our annual Broadway Acts for Women show at 54 Below in New York City. Each year, and in the only event of its kind, Broadway performers who support access to reproductive health care show up to sing something they’ve never rehearsed, while the audience bids for a fantastic prize AND the chance to choose the song. It's a madcap night of music and mayhem featuring some of Broadway's biggest stars. This year's show takes place this Sunday, September 30th and our lineup is absolutely amazing. Hosted by A is For's president Martha Plimpton and Saturday Night Live's Cecily Strong, our performers include Sara Bareilles, Deborah Cox, Brandon Victor Dixon, Ariana DeBose, Judy Kuhn, Lesli Margherita, Bonnie Milligan, Jeremy Kushnier, Rashida Olayiwola, and Jessica Vosk. Our auction host for this year is comedian Amanda Duarte, and this year's beneficiaries are National Advocates for Pregnant Women, Access Reproductive Care, and the National Network of Abortion Funds.Abortion rights in this country are in serious jeopardy. We've seen what Republicans are willing to sacrifice in order to overturn Roe v. Wade. And life without Roe would be a nightmare for women. Read the rest

Los Angeles International Airport announced its policy regarding pot - you can carry it and fly with it. If the TSA finds your stash, they might turn you over to the local fuzz, but since marijuana is legal in California, they won't bust you.LAX Marijuana PolicyWhile federal law prohibits the possession of marijuana (inclusive of federal airspace,) California’s passage of proposition 64, effective January 1, 2018, allows for individuals 21 years of age or older to possess up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and 8 grams of concentrated marijuana for personal consumption. In accordance with Proposition 64, the Los Angeles Airport Police Department will allow passengers to travel through LAX with up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and 8 grams of concentrated marijuana. However, passengers should be aware that marijuana laws vary state by state and they are encouraged to check the laws of the states in which they plan to travel.Image: PO11/Shutterstock Read the rest

Last week, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency landed two tiny rovers on the asteroid Ryugu where they'll "hop" across the rock as part of a mission to collect samples that the Hayabusa2 mothership will return to Earth. Here are new images from the asteroid that's 289 million kilometers (180 million miles) away from Earth. Far fucking out. Read the rest

For about $50, you can hire a woman for a few hours to pretend to be your girlfriend in China. Kei, one of the hosts of Asian Boss, tried out the app-based service. He and his "girlfriend" went to a park and tried some exercise equipment, then he sat down and interviewed her about what it is like to be a pretend girlfriend. She told him that she had been working as a pretend girlfriend for two or three years and she is doing it to pay down debt. She says there are 7 or 8 similar apps and she is registered on each one of them.Image: YouTube screenshot Read the rest

The American Bar Association, implied by apoplectic US Senator Lindsay Graham as offering their "gold standard" rating to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, has asked the US Senate to investigate said nominee. Seems the ABA also had problems with Kavanaugh in the past, which the Senate also ignored.Via NPR:The American Bar Association says the Senate should not hold a confirmation vote on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court until the FBI has investigated sexual assault allegations against him that were made by Christine Blasey Ford and other women.Citing the ABA's "respect for the rule of law and due process," ABA President Robert Carlson wrote in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, "The basic principles that underscore the Senate's constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI."Carlson sent the letter after the committee heard testimony from both Kavanaugh and Ford — a hearing that gripped the nation on Thursday. The ABA had previously given a rating of "well qualified" to Kavanaugh when he was nominated in July."Each appointment to our nation's highest court (as with all others) is simply too important to rush to a vote," Carlson told the committee, which was expected to vote on the nomination Friday. Read the rest

Facebook says an attack on its network left the personal information of some 50 million users—perhaps you?—exposed to hackers. Who were the hackers, and what did they want? Facebook doesn't know, or won't say.“We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you,” Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement regarding Cambridge Analytica earlier this year. Well. You heard the man.Mike Isaac and Sheera Frankel in the New York Times:The company discovered the breach earlier this week, finding that attackers had exploited a feature in Facebook’s code that allowed them to take over user accounts. Facebook fixed the vulnerability and notified law enforcement officials.More than 90 million of Facebook’s users were forced to log out of their accounts Friday morning, a common safety measure for compromised accounts.Facebook said it did not know the origin or identity of the attackers, nor had it fully assessed the scope of the attack. The company is in the beginning stages of its investigation.The discovery of the hack comes at one of the most difficult times in Facebook’s history. The company has dealt with fallout over its role in a widespread Russian disinformation campaign around the 2016 presidential election.(...) Even before Friday’s disclosure, Facebook was facing multiple Federal investigations into the company’s broader data sharing and privacy practices. The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into Facebook’s statements on Cambridge Analytica.READ THE REST.Facebook faces likely government regulation over monopoly and influence concerns, and it faces consequences for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, from EU, UK, and US legal forces. Read the rest

There is a dream, and they all spread the word that they can save this world.(Thanks, Jeff Ahern!) Read the rest

Between your work, emails, family, and friends, you've got a lot of responsibilities on your plate and hardly any time to tend to them all. Thankfully, you don't have to go at them alone. From task managers to smart calendars, we've found 8 of the best productivity tools to help you stay on top of your to-dos, and they're all on sale for a limited time.1. Pagico 8MSRP: $50Sale Price: $19 (62% off)Pagico is a one-stop app that helps turn all of your tasks, notes, and projects into beautiful interactive flowcharts, making it easy to see what's on your plate and schedule accordingly. You can focus on current to-dos with the today view, search hundreds of projects using the powerful tag browser, and much more in Pagico's streamlined interface.2. BusyCal 3MSRP: $49.99Sale Price: $19.99 (60% off)When your default calendar app won't cut it, BusyCal is there to keep you on track. This smart calendar is loaded with time-saving features, like smart filters and custom views, and integrates with all the leading cloud services, including iCloud, Google, Exchange, and more.3. Timelinr Personal Plan: Lifetime SubscriptionMSRP: $1,710Sale Price: $49.99 (97% off)With the ability to create high-level roadmaps and track tasks for any project, Timelinr lets you organize your ideas and turn them into calculated plans fast. Timelinr's SimulCollabâ„¢ feature makes it easy to keep your team in the loop with any changes you make along the way, and you can enjoy unlimited timelines and sharing as well. Read the rest

Every year, security researchers gather at Defcon's Voting Village to probe voting machines and report on the longstanding, systematic security problems with them, in order to give secure voting advocates the ammunition they need to convince Congress and local officials to take action into improve America's voting security.Whether it's showing that "secure" firmware can be dumped with a $15 electronic component or that voting systems can be hacked in minutes, the Voting Village researchers do yeoman duty, compiling comprehensive reports on the dismal state of America's voting machines, nearly 20 years after Bush v Gore put the country on notice about the defective systems behind our elections.This year's report is the most alarming yet: it singles out the ES&S M650 tabulating machine, manufactured by Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Nebraska, which still has outstanding defects that were reported to the manufacturer a decade ago. The M650's manifest unsuitability is so terrible that it would be funny if it wasn't so serious: this is a machine that uses an operating system developed for the Blackberry phone (!) and then uses Zip cartridges (!!) to move data around.The M650 is one of the most widespread pieces of equipment in American election systems, used to count in-person and absentee ballots by optically scanning ballot papers whose bubble-in forms have been filled in by voters. The system -- connected to the internet by default -- is used for county-wide tabulations in 23 states. As the report states: "Hacking just one of these machines could enable an attacker to flip the Electoral College and determine the outcome of a presidential election."The researchers identified defects in other systems, too: one could be compromised in two minutes, less time than it takes the average voter to cast a ballot on it. Read the rest

In this video, posted to Facebook by young mom Darla Jeny, an elderly woman calls police from the parking lot of a California PetSmart. It soon becomes apparent that she had spotted a baby in a parked car, but hadn't spotted mom in there with her until after she'd worked herself up into a righteous anger about what was in fact a sleeping, air-conditioned child.So we stop at PetSmart and I stay in the car with Elsie while she's sleeping in her car seat. Ac is blasting and she taps on the window to get me to roll it down. I try to ignore her but she wouldn't leave me alone. I roll down the window and she says the baby is in the sun. She threatens to call the cops if I don't move my car. I know my husband will be out any minute since we're only there for a few minutes. I then told her to mind her own business and that's when I started recording.When the hispanic mom's white husband turns up, she becomes more respectful, but the smile drops when is her claim that Darla threatened to beat her up (a claim not supported by the recording) is challenged."You deserve that child to be injured, and you probably do injure it," she says."Oh yeah, that's what we do.""Yeah you do. Look at you."[via Photography Is Not A Crime] Read the rest

Can you explain what happened in this accident caught on video surveillance in Atlanta? WSB-TV explains:a driver in northwest Atlanta drive off Marietta Street and speed through a parking lot before crashing onto the roof of a chiropractic office.A second video shows the car falling off the roof and onto a driveway below. ... Chappelear also told Channel 2's Justin Wilfon that [driver Stanley] Clarke’s foot became stuck between the gas and brake pedals, causing him to lose control.Mr Clarke was unharmed. Read the rest

Police in Colerain Township, Ohio, were summoned to a nature reserve after a dead body was spotted at the side of the road. Eventually, specialized personnel turned up who were able to determine that it was in fact a sex doll. WLWT:When Colerain police officers arrived and saw the body for themselves, they called the coroner.As the coroner went to pick up the body, they realized it wasn't human.What they had found was a sex doll, Colerain Police Chief Mark Denney said.Actually, I'm pretty sure that's just a mannequin. But you do you, Ohio.Photo courtesy of WLWT5 Read the rest

The weed killer glyphosate, better known as Monsanto's RoundUp, is touted by the manufacturer as a perfectly harmless herbicide. But a study led by bee experts at the University of Texas, Austin found that RoundUp leads to disruptions in the gut biome of honeybees and is responsible for the colony collapse disorder that's plagued bees for the last decade.From Chemical and Engineering News:The team, led by Nancy Moran, an expert in bee biology at the University of Texas, Austin, treated hundreds of worker bees with glyphosate at concentrations they might encounter while foraging near agricultural fields, reintroduced them into their hive, and then analyzed the gut bacteria of treated and untreated bees in the hive. After three days, the researchers found that the abundance of some of the eight predominant species fell in treated bees compared with untreated ones, suggesting that exposure to glyphosate changed the composition of the bees’ guts. When challenged with a common bee pathogen, the worker bees exposed to glyphosate died at higher rates than unexposed bees, suggesting that the bacterial shake-up made the insects more vulnerable.Image: Shutterstock/Simun Ascic Read the rest

It's true. Belly rubs are the best.Australian Shepherds. Such smart doggos. Such good doggos!This is the face of pure contentment and joy.Video, below.Belly rubs are the BEST[Source] Read the rest

Wait for the serious boop."Nice to meet you"......"NO. IT. IS. NOT" "Nice to meet you"......"NO. IT. IS. NOT" [source] Read the rest

What a well-timed tweet this one was, from Sony Pictures today during the worst day on Capitol Hill ever. “Tom Hanks is Mister Rogers, coming to a neighborhood near you October 2019.”Here's the “first look” image of Hanks as Fred Rogers, publicly released for the first time today with that tweet:Variety first reported in January that Hanks would play Rogers in TriStar Pictures’ biographical drama, with production starting this month. The film is based on the true story of the friendship between the “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” host and journalist Tom Junod. In the movie, Matthew Rhys (“The Americans”) plays Junod, a jaded magazine writer who is reluctantly assigned to profile Rogers. He ends up being so moved by Rogers’ kindness and empathy that he overcomes his skepticism and has a renewed look on life.The movie is the second in recent months to focus on Rogers, with the hit documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” released in June. Read the rest

“Lying Skanks.” That is what radio host and Fox News pundit Kevin Jackson (screengrabbed above) called Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's alleged sexual assault victims, in a series of tweets today. "#ChristineBlaseyFord academic problems came from her PROMISCUITY!" he wrote on Twitter during Ford's Senate testimony. "Dang girl, stop opening your legs and OPEN A BOOK!"On Thursday morning while the testimony was taking place, he tweeted, "TO HELL with the notion that women must be believed no matter what. Lying skanks is what these 3 women are, and we ALL know more."Jackson also said on Twitter Christine Blasey Ford "looks rode hard and put up wet, as we say in the country."Fox News fired him, which is kind of a big deal, considering -- you know. Fox News.From the Hollywood Reporter:On Thursday evening, Fox News said it has cut ties with Jackson. "Kevin Jackson has been terminated as a contributor," a spokesperson said. "His comments on today’s hearings were reprehensible and do not reflect the values of FOX News.”Speaking generally about liberal women, Jackson had said that "leftist women are skanky for the most part."Back in December, Jackson had his wrist slapped when he suggested on Fox News that FBI agents who disliked President Donald Trump might have pondered "an assassination attempt."At the time, a network spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that Jackson's comment "was addressed with him." Read the rest

Senator Lindsey Graham was in a foul mood today when speaking to reporters during a break in the Kavanaugh-Ford hearing. “To my Republican colleagues,” he said, “if you can ignore everything in this record, looking at an allegation that’s 35 years old, that’s uncertain for time, place, date and no corroboration, if that’s enough for you, god help us all as Republicans. Because this happens to us, it never happens to them.” He then threatened Democrats: “Let me tell you, my Democratic friends. If this is the new norm, you better watch out for your nominees.” Hmm, like Merrick Garland? Read the rest

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against entrepreneur Elon Musk alleging securities fraud. The complaint hasn't yet been made publicly available, but likely centers on his harebrained tweeting about taking the company private with foreign money.Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018Tesla shares are down 5.7%, reports Reuters. That's about $307, as of 4:20 p.m. Eastern time today.AMAZING UPDATE: Read the rest

The Kiyotsu Gorge lookout tunnel is a huge engineering marvel amidst spectacular beauty. Artists and architects recently repurposed it as an art installation replete with reflective surfaces, colored lights and sculptures.MAD Architects, led by Ma Yansong, has completed the restoration of the Kiyotsu Gorge Tunnel in Japan’s Niigata prefecture. The revitalization project sees the installation of several permanent artistic spaces along the historic lookout tunnel, with the intention of bringing back the cultural energy that once empowered the region. The “Tunnel of Light” opened on the occasion of the 2018 Echigo-Tsumari Triennale.• "Tunnel of Light" by MAD Architects at the 2018 Echigo-Tsumari Triennale (YouTube / MAD architects) Read the rest

How this video manages to make root canals seem like a straightforward and rather painless procedure is beyond me, but if I were to get another root canal, I'd want to watch this video first for some handholding reassurance. Read the rest

Above is a "Zebrafish embryo growing its elaborate sensory nervous system (visualized over 16 hours of development)" captured by Elizabeth Haynes of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and colleagues. This wondrous clip is the winning entry of Nikon's "Small World in Motion" microscopic video contest revealing dynamic weirdness and beauty at the tiniest scales. Below, second place, Dr. Miguel Bandres and Anatoly Patsyk (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology), "Laser propagating inside a soap membrane;" and third place, "Polychaete worm of the Syllidae family," by Rafael Martín-Ledo of the Conserjería Educación Gobierno de Cantabria.See more: Small World 2018 World In Motion Competition Read the rest

I enjoyed the first two movies from the current round of X-Men flicks. Mutants causing the Cuban Missile Crisis? Love it. Wolverine traveling back to the 1970s to try and stop a future holocaust AND contend with a waterbed? Totally enjoyable--although I far preferred Chris Claremont and John Byrne's Days of Future Past over what the film had to offer.X-Men: Apocalypse? Eh, not so much. The pacing was weird as hell and I can't help but feel that Oscar Issac was wasted under way too much makeup. I'm hoping that the latest installment in the series will be a return to form. For better or worse, this'll be the last X-Men movie we'll be able to lay our eyeballs on before Marvel Studios has a chance to bring their spin to the franchise. Who's in? Read the rest

Just when you thought that Facebook couldn't get any more greasy, they have outdone themselves in a manner that places them well beyond even the most succulent of French Chef finger-kisses: the phone numbers that many folks gave them in order to activate the service's two-factor authentication protection? Zuckerberg and his crew are using it to serve up advertisements to unsuspecting users.From TechCrunch:Facebook’s confession follows a story Gizmodo ran a story yesterday, related to research work carried out by academics at two U.S. universities who ran a study in which they say they were able to demonstrate the company uses pieces of personal information that individuals did not explicitly provide it to, nonetheless, target them with ads.While it’s been — if not clear, then at least evident — for a number of years that Facebook uses contact details of individuals who never personally provided their information for ad targeting purposes (harvesting people’s personal data by other means, such as other users’ mobile phone contact books which the Facebook app uploads), the revelation that numbers provided to Facebook by users in good faith, for the purpose of 2FA, are also, in its view, fair game for ads has not been so explicitly ‘fessed up to before.The best part of all of this is that, according to TechCrunch, Facebook had the chance to confess to their shitty behavior some time ago when it was revealed that users who submitted a phone number for 2FA purposes were being spammed with texts ads sent to their smartphones. Read the rest

Nearly 200 personal letters by Hunter S. Thompson to a lifelong friend are up for auction today. Bidding ends today (9/27) at 5pm PDT. The minimum bid is $110,000 and there are no bids as of this writing. From Nate D. Sanders Auctions:Archive includes Thompson's famous letter written the day of JFK's assassination (the complete letter, which was only partially published in "Proud Highway"), and other extremely controversial letters, such as brutal and unpublished details of his time at the Slates Hot Springs in Big Sur, where he patrolled the grounds, including the baths, when he served as its caretaker. Many letters deal with writing "The Rum Diary", his time with (and beating by) the Hell's Angels and the book about them that made him famous, and trying to get published in the early 1960s when he was a struggling author...On 22 June 1965, Thompson gets a check to write "on Cycle gangs", in part, "you are thinking in terms of 40 years from now, while I hesitate to think beyond 40 days. Or -- at the moment -- six months, due to the contract I just signed: $6000 guarantee against royalties for a paperback on Cycle gangs…Things are hopping and I shouldn't be writing letters. I have to whip up an outline for the Cycle book and right now I don't have the vaguest idea what I'll write…Incredible. I've been drunk for two weeks." He continues on 6 July, "I warn you that you are going to find me a much tougher and shittier person than the one you left in Louisville 2 years go…It has finally come home to me that I am not going to be either the Fitzgerald or the Hemingway of this generation…I am going to be the Thompson of this generation, and that makes me more nervous than anything else I can think of… Read the rest

Jay Harrison shared this delightful lithophone cover of Vulfpeck's "It Gets Funkier III" at the Parabola Arts Centre as part of Cheltenham Music Festival.Lithophones are at least as old as their wood counterpart the xylophone. I was reminded of their lovely sound after reading about how mysterious tools found in the Colorado desert ten years ago have just been correctly identified as lithophones:The ancient people who lived near the Great Sand Dunes crafted their lithophones out of dense, often volcanic, rock to get the best sound. The stones have different sizes, which gives them different tones and pitches. Each one has a pair of dead spots where you can hold them so they resonate. One of the most exciting things about the discovery for Martorano is what these stones tell us about the lives of ancient people. We often see evidence of where Native Americans lived centuries ago, or how they hunted or ate. We know far less about their music.“To me, at least today, things that make life meaningful include the arts, include music,” she said. “And so it makes sense to me that that was important in the past as well.”Back to Jay's more modern version, here's a Paul Simon cover:And a short snippet of Radiohead:• VULFPECK /// It Gets Funkier III /// Electromechanical Lithophone (YouTube / Jay Harrison) Read the rest

Punk historian and music journalist Jon Savage has assembled an oral history of Joy Division to be published in March 2019. "This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else: Joy Division" features interviews with all the surviving members of the pioneering band -- Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris -- along with Deborah Curtis, Peter Saville, Tony Wilson, Anik Honore, and others. It sounds to be a compelling companion to the 2007 documentary Joy Division, written by Savage and directed by Grant Gee. Read the rest

This quick trailer from Epic sets up Season 6, darkness may rise but silliness will reign.The Battle Pass looks great. Little Red Riding Hood, the gliders and pets will be fun to earn!I haven't been able to play, my little Xbox is struggling to download the giant 10GB update and I understand there are crashing issues. Life on the Island, I guess.If you would like to play Fortnite with folks who will get your A-Team jokes, there is Fortnite Over Forty, a discord set up for aging FPS enthusiasts. Read the rest

Like many young (and old) people, John Lennon had a stamp collecting phase. His collection is now on view at the Smithsonian's National Post Museum in honor of the US Postal Service's new John Lennon stamp (above). From Smithsonian magazine: Lennon’s stamp collecting was inspired by his late cousin Stanley Parkes, who gave him the classic Mercury album (with a picture of the god Mercury on the cover) when John was 10 years old. The album’s new owner wrote his name on the title page, after erasing Stanley’s, and beneath it his address at the time: 451 Menlove Ave., Woolton, Liverpool. (The house of his aunt Mimi, later bought by Yoko Ono and given to the National Trust.) As a boy, Lennon prefigured his future of counter culture cheekiness by sketching moustaches and beards on the book’s images of Queen Victoria and King George VI.John Lennon: The Lost Album (Smithosnian) Read the rest

Jim Mortleman & Stuart Houghton write, "We're two UK tech journalists who also write comedy. This is our (UK-based) scripted comi-documentary podcast explaining the weird, wacky and potentially world-changing field of quantum computing to a curious but confused general audience. With laughs. In episode one we answer the question 'What the photonic muck is a quantum computer?' with the help of some of the world's leading quantum physicists and, er, Al Murray The Pub Landlord." Read the rest

Here is the livestream. It began at 7am PST, this morning. I hope our Senators can treat her with respect. Read the rest

A reminder that I'm wrapping up my Columbia University lecture series tonight at 5PM, when I'm appearing onstage with Radiolab's Jad Abumrad at the lecture theater in Pulitzer Hall (RSVP here); and then I'm heading to Swarthmore tomorrow, to give a talk at the Lang Performing Arts Center Room (LPAC) 101 Cinema from 7-9PM. Both talks are free. Read the rest

Solid objects turn out to be mostly made of empty space and whirling particles, but we act as though they're solid, because we rarely have to interact with them in such a granular way that involves their underlying complexity.In the same way, solid iron-clad concepts turn out to be riddled with exceptions that we generally ignore because they're easy to deal with on a case-by-case basis. But when a programmer has to create a system that everyone can use, suddenly these "edge cases" grow to devour the project.For example: human names are (really) weird. Building a system that can accept all the names people have is really hard. There's actually a giant list of human concepts that are hard to capture in software design.A worthy addition to that list: Dave Delong's Calendrical Fallacies, AKA lies programmers believe about dates.An hour will never occur twice in a single dayFalse. On days when we “leap back” for the Daylight Saving Time shift, one hour occurs twice. For example, in the United States, the hour that occurs twice is the 1 AM hour. This means that on these “fall back” days, correctly-implemented clocks will go from 1:58 … 1:59 … 1:00 … 1:01 … … 1:59 … 2:00 … 2:01 …This leads to some interesting questions: If a user has set an alarm to wake up at 1 AM on that day, what happens? Does the alarm go off the hour after the midnight hour? Read the rest

Jack Poulson is one of several googlers to quit the company over Project Dragonfly, the company's secret plan to launch a Chinese search tool that will incorporate state surveillance and censorship on behalf of China's authoritarian government.Now, Poulson has sent a letter to the US Senate detailing the internal workings of Project Dragonfly, confirming that the tool is designed to block such queries as "student protest" and "Nobel prize," and to facilitate tracking users whose search history reveals an interest in politically sensitive topics.Google confirmed that this product has been developed, but insisted that the product is "not close to launch."The letter alleges Google is working on:* A prototype interface designed to allow a Chinese joint venture company to search for a given user's search queries based on their phone number* An extensive censorship blacklist developed in accordance with Chinese government demands. Among others, it contained the English term "human rights", the Mandarin terms for 'student protest' and 'Nobel prize', and very large numbers of phrases involving 'Xi Jinping' and other members of the CCP* Explicit code to ensure only Chinese government-approved air quality data would be returned in response to Chinese users' searchEx-Google employee warns of ‘disturbing’ China plans [Dave Lee/BBC] Read the rest

As the tide of public opinion turns against monopolism, Amazon has become the poster child for irredeemable, late-stage capitalism; the company's ham-fisted attempts to burnish its reputation have not stemmed the tide.As a result, union drives among Amazon workers -- including those at Amazon subsidiaries like Whole Foods -- have gained steam.Like other giants -- McDonald's, Walmart, etc -- Amazon is staunchly opposed to unionization by its workforce. In a 45-minute video aimed at Amazon managers and leaked to Gizmodo, the company sets out a playbook for suppressing unionization drives. Gizmodo did not release the video in order to protect its source, but it does describe each of the video's six sections in detail, and supplements it with screenshots (Amazon accused Gizmodo of "cherry-picking" in its characterization of the video, but declined to release the video in full, or clarify what the video's actual message was).Here are a few of the (extensive) examples “that can indicate associate disengagement, vulnerability to organizing, or early organizing activity,” according to the video:* Use of words like “living wage” and “steward”* Distribution of petitions and fliers* Associates raising concerns on behalf of their coworkers* Wearing union t-shirts, hats, or jackets* Workers “who normally aren’t connected to each other suddenly hanging out together”* Workers showing an “unusual interest in policies, benefits, employee lists, or other company information”* Increased negativity in the workplace* “[A]ny other associate behavior that is out of character”The training video then asks managers to listen to 10 hypothetical employees and select whether their remarks constitute a “warning sign” or “innocent interaction.” Workers loitering in the break room after their shift, asking for a list of the site’s roster, or complaining about the absence of a living wage fall into the “warning sign” category. Read the rest

Do your college essays still give you nightmares? You're not alone. A blank page or screen can be a terrifying sight, but a University of Cambridge tutor's new course can help you hit that keyboard with confidence.Dr. Clare Lynch has de-mystified academic writing and communication for students, business executives and government officials worldwide, and that experience is packed into her comprehensive course Writing With Impact: Writing That Persuades. Whether you're looking to present your best self in a business proposal, cover letter or blog, Lynch's examples will clear the path to winning prose. Over 4 hours of training, you'll develop your voice and confidence as a writer and learn valuable persuasion techniques that professional writers use. Whether you're writing outreach emails or commerce posts, you'll be able to improve your writing skills and get better results.This course is only $9.99 when you enroll today. Read the rest

Team Coco has announced that Conan O'Brien is going on an 18-U.S.-city stand-up comedy tour with his "funniest friends."Info below (links mine):Tickets Go on Sale Friday, September 28Featuring Rory Scovel, James Veitch, Marina Franklin, and Flula Borg.Fri, Nov 2 - Washington, D.C. (Warner Theatre)Sat, Nov 3 - Atlantic City (The Music Box)Sun, Nov 4 - Detroit, MI (The Fillmore)Tue, Nov 6 - Boston, MA (Wilbur Theatre)Wed, Nov 7 - Port Chester, NY (Capitol Theatre)Thu, Nov 8 - New York City, NY (Beacon Theatre)Featuring Ron Funches, James Veitch, Taylor Tomlinson, and Flula Borg.Thu, Nov 15 – Atlanta, GA (The Tabernacle)Fri, Nov 16 - Houston, TX (Revention Center)Sat, Nov 17 - Austin, TX (ACL Moody Theatre)Sun, Nov 18 - Nashville, TN (War Memorial Auditorium)Wed, Nov 28 - Chicago, IL (Chicago Theatre)Thu, Nov 29 - Minneapolis, MN (The Orpheum Theatre)Fri, Nov 30 - Milwaukee, WI (Riverside Theatre)Featuring Deon Cole, Ron Funches, James Veitch and Flula Borg.Sun, Dec 9 - Los Angeles, CA (The Wiltern)Featuring Ron Funches, Laurie Kilmartin, Moses Storm, and Flula Borg.Tue, Dec 11- Seattle, WA (Moore Theatre)Wed, Dec 12 - Denver, CO (Paramount Theatre)Fri, Dec 14 - Vancouver, BC (Queen Elizabeth Theatre)Sat, Dec 15 - San Francisco, CA (The Masonic) Read the rest

In All You Need is “Love”: Evading Hate Speech Detection, a Finnish-Italian computer science research team describe their research on evading hate-speech detection algorithms; their work will be presented next month in Toronto at the ACM Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Security.As Big Tech has gotten bigger and taken on an outsized role in some of the most toxic and dangerous trends in world affairs -- from institutional misogyny to acts of genocide -- there have been louder and louder calls for the platforms to police their users' conduct and speech. The platforms have responded by promising a mix of algorithmic systems and human moderation, and have fielded some of these algorithms and even made them available for testing by the likes of the team behind this research.Their findings replicate the filter-evasion findings from other domains, where even the most sophisticated systems can be beaten with trivial countermeasures (for example, Chinese image censorship can be defeated by simply flipping a banned image). This team discuss several tactics of varying efficiency, but the most promising and easiest to implement was simply adding the word "love" to a hateful message, while running the "hate" words together in camel-case (e.g. "MartiansAreDisgustingAndShouldBeKilled love."Yesterday, I wrote about Corynne McSherry's "five lessons from the copyright wars" for people who want the platforms to take a more active role in policing user speech. This paper raises a sixth lesson: "The filters are unlikely to prevent the kind of activity you're worried about." In the same way that Youtube's Content ID filters are routinely subverted by copyright infringers, so too should we expect any kind of hate-speech filter to be easy for dedicated harassers to evade, meaning that the people they'll be most effective against are those who are caught accidentally -- say, because their discussion of how traumatic it was to be subjected to harassment is algorithmically mistaken for harassment itself. Read the rest

Australia's marvelous television is exemplified by A Current Affair, a current affairs programme specializing in filmed confrontations with ne'erdowells such as this shirtless pastor, described (perhaps accurately) by the reporter as Serial Pervert Con Man in a prelude to a low-quality public fistfight. See also the excellent Australian highway patrol show, Highway Patrol Australia. Read the rest

In 2014, Facebook bought the messaging system Whatsapp for $22B; it was a weird fit, because Whatsapp founders had decried Facebook's surveillance-based business model and targeted advertising, and had promised its users "No ads, no games, no gimmicks."Late last year, the cofounders of Whatsapp left Facebook, saying little at the time -- but then, in the midst of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Brian Acton, one of the founders, tweeted "It is time. #deletefacebook."Acton has said little in public since, but in a long, revealing interview with Forbes's Parmy Olson, he frankly discusses the bad decision he made to trade his vision for the company he'd built for billions, and how he should have understood that Facebook would never keep its promises to preserve Whatsapp's autonomy and privacy protections. He also reveals that when he left the company, he declined an offere of $850,000,000 in unvested stock in exchange for signing a nondisclosure agreement that would have kept him from discussing any of this.The interview is a revealing look at the internal culture of Facebook, particularly how the company's senior management kids itself -- and the employees -- that taking actions that make its products simultaneously worse and more profitable is actually good for the company's users.It's really clear from the interview that Whatsapp users should expect to have their activity tracked and used as part of Facebook's overall, creepy surveillance. I stopped using all Facebook products a few years ago. I don't visit Facebook pages, I block its beacons, and I migrated my family off of Whatsapp for group messaging. Read the rest